


The Girl from a Thousand Villages

by st3llarkid



Category: Overwatch (Video Game)
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, As canon as Overwatch canon can be, Canon Autistic Character, Do not repost, F/F, Future mature content, KIND of canon, Mostly not, Slow Burn, Symmbra, Team Talon (Overwatch), Worldbuilding
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-03-23
Updated: 2020-05-18
Packaged: 2021-02-28 19:21:05
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 10,155
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23282428
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/st3llarkid/pseuds/st3llarkid
Summary: Two girls with two completely different lives enter Oasis University, each with objectives in mind. What they both find is something neither expect, but maybe something that they both needed all along.
Relationships: Aleksandra "Zarya" Zaryanova/Mei-Ling Zhou, Sombra | Olivia Colomar/Satya "Symmetra" Vaswani
Comments: 8
Kudos: 23





	1. 1

**Author's Note:**

> The description will probably change at some point! I started writing this fic almost four years ago, and now that I'm back playing Overwatch (thank you, quarantine), I figured it would be a great time to pick it back up again after some tweaking.
> 
> I'm not following any real canon in the events referenced, but anything important to plot will be described.
> 
> One thing I love about the OW characters is how their designs reflect their cultures, and I wanted to capture some of that localization in my characterization. Spanish is not a familiar language to me so please let me know if there's anything that needs adjusting on that front. 
> 
> I hope this ship is still alive and that everyone enjoys!

Oasis University harbored some of the youngest and brightest minds of the planet, all of whom came together to make the world a better place. At least that was what the damn high and mighty website said. Sombra was already bored with the place by the time she was done sifting through the information she could find in her preliminary search. It was a public research university dedicated to turning out Overwatch heroes, or at least they used to be. They didn't advertise that so much after the past few years of international crises.

Someone at the university had reached out to her the day before with an encrypted message dropped in the files she had been decoding for Gabe, sending her half into shock. In their message, they offered her admission into their school with no strings attached, simply access to knowledge without even being put into the system. It was a bold faced lie, too good to be true. Her name was obviously already in their system. 

Sombra technically didn't exist on paper or the net and was more than careful with her online security. How they had figured out how to get in contact was beyond her, but she was determined to find out, use that information, and strengthen her own defenses. She wouldn’t get caught by surprise like this again.

She wasn't about to give their offer a serious thought until Lucio told her she should take it while they ate together on the rooftop the next day. 

“You want me to do what now?? You must have finally gone crazy from all those amplifiers blasting sound into your ears all day.” Sombra scoffed with her mouth full. Lucio had brought lunch for them being the saint that he was

“Haven't you always said you wanted to get outta here and see the world?” 

“Yes, but not like this. I was thinking more of the get-rich-and-fly-high-after-we-bust-the-bad-guys kind of seeing the world. You don't think it's fucked how they knew how to get my attention? They knew exactly where I was looking to get their message to me. It's like, how long have they been watching me without me knowing?” Sombra said, brow knit in thought as she talked over Lucio's music. It was alarming.

“Who cares? They don't seem malicious. They could have threatened you, but instead they’re offering an opportunity. Besides, I'm nobody, and even I've heard of that place. Oasis University? They turn out some of the greats of the world.” Lucio pointed out, shoveling some more rice into his mouth. 

“And some of the most corrupt in the world.” Sombra pointed out, poking the other in the ribs with her fork. She had come across plenty of names in her searches, men and women who worked for their own personal benefit. Those names always ended up on her list. “I dunno. It doesn't sit right. None of this does. Makes me wanna scrap my system and rebuild my security from the top down.” Paranoia was like a virus of the mind, and she didn't know if she could get rid of it without a complete overhaul. 

“Then learn from their message.” Lucio said simply, poking her back. “Either they can keep watching you here and you don’t get an answer to how they’re doing it, or you can go and make use what they have to offer and get better so that you're really untraceable.” 

“When you say it like that, it makes too much sense.” Grumbling, Sombra let herself lay back on the ground beneath her, staring up and the buildings rising up above her. Castillo had become the closest thing to home she had, and she would be lying if she said that she didn't want to leave what she had been starting here. But if someone out there one: knew how to find her and two: knew what kind of information she was getting into, there was no doubt she might be jeopardizing Talon’s mission with her deficits. 

“Just go for it, dummy. You'll gain more from it than you'll lose.” 

\------

Telling Gabe she was going to leave was going to be harder than convincing herself. Joining Talon had literally saved Sombra’s life, and the man was like a father. Under his direction, she had found her talent and used it to the team’s advantage in their struggle to battle corruption that was laying just underneath the squeaky clean faces and corporations that governed the world.

Not wanting him to know about the breach into her files, she fabricated an open letter she ‘found’ for a scholarship as well as an acceptance, both written to a pen name she used occasionally. Easy enough. So was Gabe calling her on her shit, but as he read the acceptance letter, he just got a sad smirk on his face. 

“I wouldn't be able to stop you from going if I tried, would I?” He sighed. 

“I’m coming back if that makes you feel any better. I want to do it so I can be stronger and carry out what we started.” Sombra insisted, actually telling the truth. 

She wasn't about to leave their mission behind. She wanted to know where the corruption she saw in the world came from and destroy its source. That was her personal goal anyway. She would have to leave Talon where they were. Someone else would have to take over her position in deciphering the files they retrieved and determining how much involvement they had with the omnics before the uprising. 

Sombra’s short term goal now however was to find who sent that message to her and how. She knew she was a genius, but she still had so much more to learn, especially from her mistakes and shortcomings. She wouldn’t stop until she knew everything she possibly could. 

“I’m not worried about you not coming back. I know you'll come back. Just wondering if it'll be the same you. When do you leave?” 

“Tonight. I’m taking an overnight bus to Mexico City and getting picked up from there. And I'll always be the same me. I've been through hell and back already. Doubt I could face anything worse.” Sombra pointed out stubbornly. 

“If only you knew what the next layer of hell was like.” Gabe shook his head a little, holding out a hand for a farewell shake which got a giggle from Sombra. 

“You suck at goodbyes.” she smirked, opting for wrapping her arms around his neck instead despite his protest. She stayed like that for a few moments before finally letting go, refusing to be sad about their parting. She knew she would miss his scowls, his cursing when one of the new guys fucked up, the way he pretended like he didn’t wait to fall asleep until everyone else had. 

“See you around, Mr Grumpy Pants.” She grinned as she exited the Talon facility, wondering if she might come back so changed. She wouldn’t dare to look back and see the answer of Gabe’s face. 

\-----

The last stop before the left was to El Mecánica to get a tune up on her hardware. Who knew how long it would be until Sombra came back. System upgrades she could do herself, but she was still learning about the physical nuts and bolts of it all. It was only a couple years ago when she had decided to start fusing herself and her computer together, and the pain had been well worth it. She could get plugged in easier, work faster, even set up her programming so that she could work without even using a screen. She could simply think, and the code could write itself. It was any techie criminal's dream. 

As Sombra laid there, grimacing with discomfort as the woman above her adjusted the nodes on her spine, she let her mind wander to the possibilities that lay ahead of her. She had already checked to see whether this invitation might have been a scam, and it wasn't. Only a select amount of students received this opportunity and none of them had been tied to anything particularly fishy, but that thought stopped her in her tracks. 

Students.

When the hell had she been a student? Maybe under Gabe a little bit, but she had taught herself most everything she knew. And she had never been one to really think about fitting in. She always made her own path, but pulling up pictures of the school in her mind, she couldn't help but feel immediately outclassed by just the buildings. Would she make the cut for being a student there without any money or formal education? Would she run into trouble? Would they see through her immediately? She was no one from nowhere. Sure she had brains, but that would only get her so far, right? As her mind began to spiral with possibility after possibility, a tap to the back of her head snapped her out of her thoughts. 

“You tensed up, mi hija. What's wrong?” The Mechanic asked as she screwed the plate back onto the last node. Sombra wasn't sure how long the older woman had been working here in Castillo, but she had been helping kids with modifications for as many years as those modifications were around. It was a small gesture that meant a lot when it felt like the whole world was against you. 

“Nothing.” Sombra waved her off, sitting up and redressing herself slowly. She had to be careful to readjust to her body the next couple of days after realignment. 

“You are worried about your trip.” She said simply, more a statement than question as she put away her tools. 

“That obvious, huh?” Sombra shrugged, pretending like she wasn't as suddenly bothered as she was. She was always careful to place barriers around herself so no one could get to her emotionally, but somehow the other could see through her. It made her skin crawl just like the invitation she had received had. 

The Mechanic only hummed in response as she came back over to examine the panels in Sombra’s head, deeming the hardware steady enough. She had refused the younger girl when she first came to her wanting modifications. She had been too young, too small. She would have instantly outgrown anything that was put in her body, but the day she turned eighteen was the day she had gifted with the best and newest tech the older woman had. 

“Mi hija, there is nothing to be afraid of.” the older woman smiled a little, looking down at Sombra. “The world is big and wide, but you are ready to be in it, to live in it outside of those screens of yours.”

Sombra smirked and pulled on her shirt, hopping off of the examination table. “I hope I am. If not, I'll make myself ready.” She was about to leave the room when the woman's next words stopped her in her tracks. 

“My mentor gave me great advice when I was younger that I want to pass along to you. Nadie puede hacerte sentir inferior a menos que lo permitas.” She said, a fond smile in her voice. 

“I'll keep it in mind.” Sombra replied after some hesitation, slipping out of the workshop into the evening air as her skin itched with the feeling of intrusion. 

\-----

The hardest part of packing was saying goodbye to most of her hardware. There were a select few within Talon who were trusted with her computer while she was away, but she was still worried about her baby. She had built him from scratch, hardware and software alike. After leaving some detailed instructions on maintenance, she grabbed only a few things from her work station that she just couldn't leave behind. They were works in progress mostly, but she had her hands on a few technologies that would work together with what was installed in her body. She didn't plan to stop tinkering with those. She packed her favorite tool kit as well in case her hardware broke down or she had the ability to play with computers at the school (for as long as they trusted her with them, that was). 

Packing clothes was the easy part. She didn't have very many possessions to begin with, but she was proud of how she dressed. All of her clothing was patterned and well crafted with luminescent strips she could control. It associated her with Talon, and the people in Castillo knew when they saw the patterns that she was one of the good guys. Not only were they trying to take down the corrupt, but they wanted to restore their communities to what they were before all of this shit. 

Actually leaving Castillo was the hardest part of it all. Sombra sat at the bus station with her dinner, eating as she waited for departure. The more she looked around at the little town, the more she knew she would miss. This place wasn't her home, but there were elements that felt pretty close: Talon, Gabe, Lucio. They were the closest thing to family she had ever had.

There wasn’t any looking back. She had made up her mind, and she had something important to do. Her mission was what made her important to the world, and if she wasn’t working towards her goal, then what was she doing? 

Cursing quietly, Sombra tossed her trash into the bin and got on the bus, preparing for the ten hour ride. No point in being emotional about it. The things she loved could be gone in an instant, she reminded herself. Being sentimental would just bring her pain when they disappeared. 

Sombra paid her fare and got settled in her seat on the near empty bus, staring out the window at the coast line. As much as she hoped she might sleep on the trip, she knew it wouldn't come.


	2. 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Figured I would post the two exposition heavy chapters on the same day! Enjoy!

Satya Vaswani was declared a prodigy in engineering by the age of twelve. Coming from nothing, she had been put in a spotlight and prodded towards greatness with the help of the Vishkar Corporation. It had been hard at first, to adjust to a life so foreign to her. She was only seven when she had been brought to her new home. The lights in the facility were too bright, the walls were too white, and everything was too comfortable. All of it felt like excess and waste, and she just knew she could design a way for exactly twenty three more people to make use of her dorm room alone. Her first week was a nightmare of chaos and checkups and tests, and she hadn’t taken it well.

The adjustment period was difficult. Satya knew what she knew in her head, but communication with Vishkar had to come first. She had to be trained in English and Hindi before they could provide her any of the other resources they had, and it was a slow process. She wasn’t used to speaking with others, but as soon as she started thinking of language like the building blocks of architecture, she excelled. In fact, thinking of any subject like architecture helped Satya to breeze through it. She could bring logic to things she did not understand and order to chaos. 

As a gesture of their willingness to provide for her, Vishkar also fitted her for a prosthetic arm to replace the one she had been missing since birth. She underwent surgery to install a plate over her arm socket where the prosthetic could magnetize into place, allowing her minute and precise movement even if there was minimal neurological response. 

She went on with her growth and development, spending her days in the dormitory, library, and lab, keeping to herself as she studied. She had come to not mind her training as long as they told her their desired result and let her figure out how to use the tools at her disposal. Her mind worked better that way. There was always a logical pattern, a step by step puzzle that needed to simply be discovered. Logic never failed. Along the way, she had gained the nickname Symmetra for her love and desire for balance in her work, and she loathed it. She herself was not symmetrical, and she would never be. And yet it still remained until she begrudgingly learned to tolerate it. 

There was a pattern to her days, unbroken for three years and two months. She woke up at 7:00am, ate and showered before attending a private instruction with one teacher at 8:00am. At noon, she ate once more and retreated to the library to study architecture until 4:00pm. After this, she studied mathematics with another teacher and then broke for the evening, reading about whatever subject she preferred at the moment before she ate and fell asleep at 11:00pm. Once a month, she underwent a medical and mental examination, and once a year, the plate where her prosthetic magnetized to her body was refitted to match her body’s growth.

This pattern remained mostly undisturbed until her lab instructor spoke to her one day about graduating from their in-house training program and continuing her research at Oasis University, a school that was world renowned for engineering and mathematics. Many of Vishkar’s brightest techs had graduated from the institution, he explained, and their resources would further expand her mind.

The idea wasn't pleasing to Satya, but she knew it was already out of her control, just like the decision for her to come to Vishkar had been when she was younger. It wasn't upsetting however, to be powerless. It was more upsetting to feel unbalanced. 

\-----

Only a couple months later, and she was arriving at Oasis University in Iraq. Satya hated it. She was used to the heat, but the dry air was stifling. Sand would come in with the breeze, which made her feel as if she needed to shower every time she stepped outdoors.

And there were too many people. Far too many people. While she had shared the dormitory facilities at Vishkar with a handful of other candidates, they had never interacted. Here, everyone seemed as if they felt the need to chatter with unnecessary conversation. It was a grating, senseless nightmare. She didn’t understand it.

One of her teachers from the Corporation had come with her to take care of registration and help her settle in. Fortunately, she had been put into a single person room that she immediately rearranged and organized to her liking. She had very few of her own belongings so unpacking only consisted of putting away a few books, some uniforms from Vishkar, and personal hygiene items. After receiving her course schedule and guidelines for conduct, her teacher was gone, leaving Satya to her own devices. 

The dorm was not so bad the first night. The building was designed well enough, and she had no issues with the infrastructure. Everything had quieted down by evening and her room was dark, allowing her to sleep well, but the morning was simply too much for Satya. She had apparently part of the early move-in group because there was an even larger group of people crowded into the building. There were whole families bringing their children, groups of friends noisily reuniting, lift pads buzzing here than there to deliver luggage. It was too much chaos, too much noise for her to handle, and she retreated to her room to work on her light problems. 

Where she had once hated light, she now found peace with it. It stayed constant and logical, but on paper, she manipulated it and bent it in the ways that only numbers allowed. It was a form of control she was allowed, and she wanted to push it to its limits. Before she had left, her teachers had believed she was on the verge of something, a way to control light and make it obey her. If light became so concentrated and refracted in such a way, perhaps it could be formed into a solid. It was still theoretical, but that was the goal that Satya wanted to reach. 

She remained working on light problems for hours until her stomach reminded her that she needed to eat. She grimaced at the thought of going out into a sea of people, but she supposed she had no other choice. Pulling her long hair up into a neat bun and slipping on her shoes, she made sure she had her key and a book to read before following the directions she had been given to the cafeteria. 

If she had thought the dorm had been bad that morning, this building was even more hectic that evening. There was almost no sense of order for the lines to get food, with people walking here and there. The sounds and sights were almost too much, and Satya had to find a place to sit first to avoid foot traffic. She didn’t think she had ever seen so many people in one place, not even in her childhood village. They were all kinds of sizes and nationalities and had on so many colors, she didn’t know where to look. 

Closing her eyes, she took a deep breath, knowing she had to get through this. She had to eat something. When she finally thought she had adjusted herself enough, she got back up and into one of the disorderly lines, not caring what she received from it as long as she received something. 

As she stood there, she realized she could try and learn something instead of getting too overwhelmed. She should never waste a second of time. Each moment was valuable as she had been taught. She had always been a stranger to proper social interaction, even when she was younger with the other kids in her village, and it struck her that her previous education might have rendered her even more inept. If getting food was always going to be like this though, she could stand to learn something. 

So she listened. She listened to the conversation of the girls in front of her as they talked about clothes she couldn’t visualize, and she soon lost track of what they were talking about. She listened to the music pouring out of a boy’s headphones, the beat seeming asynchronous with every other melody it accompanied. She listened to the giggle of a group in the back, grimacing at the high pitch. She didn’t understand any of it. All of it was so unnecessary. Excess. Wasteful. 

After much too long, she received her food and scanned her key to pay, heading to the corner of the room where she had been sitting before, except now the table wasn’t so empty. A group of girls sat around where she had placed her book, talking and bickering about something, and Satya froze. What should she do? Grab her book and leave? Sit down and pretend like they weren’t there? It was too late to act on her impulse to leave her book entirely as one of them spotted her with an expression that was all too cheery. 

“What do you think, luv?” Came her high pitched voice, breaking Satya out of her panic momentarily. She didn’t know what to say or if she should even respond. Clearly the short haired girl was talking to her by the way she held eye contact. “You think a defense omnic could win against a family of hippos? Those animals have got t’be the toughest creatures on the planet. Did you see them at the sanctuary yet?” She said, pointing the last question at her friends. 

“That’s bullshit, Lena.” Another girl pointed out sharply across the table, taking a bite of her food as if to prove a point with it somehow. She was striking to Satya, with strange looking eyeliner (was it a tattoo?) around one eye. “Hippos could not win against a gattlin, no matter how thick their skin may be.”

“This is a pointless argument.” Another butted in, cutting off the girl named Lena as she was just about to refute the point. This one seemed thoroughly disinterested in anything going on though she still sat close. “Besides, you’re scaring this poor girl.”

Just as Satya was about to take her book and retreat to her room with her food, Lena jumped up from her seat, giving her a sorry smile. The girl didn’t seem like she could keep from moving, and it was thoroughly aggravating. 

“Is that book yours? I guess we should have asked before we sat here. If you stay here, I promise we won’t bother you.” Lena said, contradicting herself by coming closer, holding her hand out for a shake “Name’s Lena Oxton. Nice to meetcha.” 

“Satya Vaswani.” She replied shortly, uncomfortably ignoring the hand and sitting down to eat her food quickly. 

She wanted to Lena and the others, but she knew as soon as she sat down that that wouldn’t be a possibility. Lena tried asking her a couple of questions, but when she got no answer and no further eye contact from Satya, she got the message and simply picked up debating with the others who were willing to participate. 

“You know you don’t have to sit here if you don’t want.” Satya looked up to see the girl across from her with sharp eyes and a long ponytail. Her tone wasn’t rude, but more inquisitive as to why Satya was tolerating them. “Lena means well, but she can be quite a lot.” She said, both ignoring the small, slightly offended ‘hey’ that came from the other end of the table. 

Satya wasn’t sure how to respond to the other, taking her time chewing and swallowing before she could come up with something. “I chose this spot. It’s easier not to move.” She said matter of factly, figuring it was the closest thing to the logical process in her mind. 

“Fair enough.” The girl said, satisfied enough with the answer to keep eating. 

Meal time continued well enough, until it wasn’t going well at all. Lena had gone through five more battle animal possibilities, and it was stupid. There was no point to the train of thought. It was a waste of words. 

“This is a pointless conversation.” Satya spoke up, looking up directly at Lena with a scowl. Her interjection got her mixed reactions: agreement from the girl Satya now knew as Amélie, a laugh from the eye tattoo one, Fareeha, and shock from Lena that quickly turned into a grin. 

“She finally talks, huh?” 

“I think I like her already.” Fareeha continued to laugh, her voice deep and loud. “Anyone who can tell you off is a friend of mine.”

Playful bickering continued as Satya picked up her tray and book (that hadn’t gotten much use), ready to escape the noise. She was tired and irritated and jet lagged, and she wanted nothing more than silence. 

“Hey, Satya, don’t be a stranger!” Fareeha called out as Satya walked away, teasing Lena with her phone dangling far above her head. 

Excess. Wasteful.


	3. 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> To all of you following this, thank you so much! I want to be honest and say that I haven't written any more chapters than what I currently have, but I would love to share what I do have and then some day pick it back up. Overwatch hasn't been my fandom for a couple of years now, but the ideas I had for where this fic is going still mean a lot to me. Thank you for the interest and kind comments so far!

_S: This school is fucking boring, Luciooo. I told you it would be._

_L: What makes it so boring, huh? You’ve only had two days of class._

_S: Yeah classes that don’t even matter! What the hell do I need physics or biology for?? And the comp sci classes are a fucking joke. I’d be better off having the day to myself. And who the fuck can sit in a chair for so long?!?! Matter of fact, who even thought of class?! You can learn everything you need just by living…_

_L: Hey chica, calm down. I’m sure something different happens eventually? Or you could just go to other classes. If you’re not in the system then you can just sit in whatever class you want, right?_

_S: These were recommended for me. I felt like I couldn’t say no to trying them out at least. You saw the pictures of this place right? Everything’s so fucking shiny and everyone looks so damn rich. It’s really fucking weird._

_L: Hey, you can compete with the best of em. Don’t let all of it make you forget what you’re there for. How’s your roommate?_

_S: I’ll keep it in mind… She’s nice, not too much ‘anything’, thank god. She’s a grad student studying Arctic ice or something? Weird for her to be in the middle of the desert..._

_L: I’ll take it she’s not a friend yet then, huh?_

_S: I wasn’t here to make friends._

_L: You should try. Might help pass the time quicker. I gotta catch some sleep ok? You behave as much as you can._

Sombra groaned and stuffed her phone into her pocket, looking around the small classroom she had been eating in. The cafeteria was on the other side of campus so she had just found something from a vending machine, amazed that they actually had any kind of decent option. What kind of rich ass place had sandwiches in their vending machines anyways? Apparently this one. The university was so different from anything she was used to, and Sombra didn’t quite know how to feel about it. All the facilities were just… too nice. Every classroom was filled with technology and surrounded by high windows that made them look more like a church than anything else. Sombra didn’t have a home so she couldn’t be homesick, but she definitely wasn’t in Mexico. The sky was just as blue, but the air was too dry. The towers rose far above any she had ever seen before, and it was stifling. 

And the people. Most were so pretentious, talking about this thing and that, all things that didn’t matter. Sombra had to look up most everything she heard about in passing conversation, and it all just seemed useless. The clothes, the trends, the gossip. Who cared what movie stars were doing when you had your own life to take care of? Sombra had known her place back home, knew where she belonged, and she had been comfortable with it. Being thrown into this environment though, it just pissed her off. It made her feel out of place, outside the norm in a way that she had never really felt before. 

She needed to do something.

She was already bored out of her mind, and she was itching to get on a computer again, not just use the one inside her head. She wanted to catch up with what Gabe and the rest of them were doing, but that work was too risky to access remotely. She didn’t even want to risk contacting him too much while she was here. She could try and sit in on /actually interesting/ classes, but as she quickly scanned through the class schedule, she couldn’t find much that appealed to her. 

She needed to find a computer. Before she had left Castillo, she had been working on a device that worked with her dna to turn her virtually invisible, body and clothes alike, and she was so close to results. When Gabe had asked her what purpose that would have for a hacker, Sobra just had a simple answer. “I’m a thief.” The only problem with trying to work on it was finding a computer to use. Sure she could do some coding with the holographic screens she could pull up on demand, but she needed a place to plug the device in. And so far, she had no ports for that.

There was no way in hell she would work in one of the school labs, and it wasn’t as if she had the money to bring a computer with her or buy one on her way (she had found out that that had been a popular option in class when everyone pulled a laptop out for notes, rich bastards). The thought of swiping some other student’s computer came across her mind, but she decided against it. It would have been plenty easy, especially in a place like this where everyone assumed their belongings were safe, but she wouldn’t want to risk getting kicked out before she had finished what she had come here to do. Maybe she could borrow one from the school and simply ‘modify’ it. There couldn’t be too much wrong with that, right? 

Tossing her trash, she headed towards the library, figuring that would be the best place to start the search. She hadn’t made her way into that building yet and for good reason. She didn’t care enough. There was no amount of knowledge inside any book that she needed. If she could produce any answer to any questions she needed with a flick of her fingers, why go to a piece of information that was outdated the moment it was printed? The library building itself was a bit daunting. It rose high above the rest with a geometric spire and massive windows that looked out on the rest of the city. The building reflected the sun, giving a pearly light to its surroundings, and Sombra thought it was too perfect to be real. /damn rich ass school./

\-----

It was easy enough to find out where to find rentable computers, and Sombra managed to find a way to get around actually renting it herself. The school had kept their word on not putting her in their system, but that meant she had no key card or student ID to rent with. So she rifled through the library’s student database and rented it indefinitely to a random student. The last step was just to get rid of all the hardware security measures, and she would be set. No problem.

The problem was the girl who had seen her do all of this while she was sitting in the corner of the library, unscrewing the bottom of the laptop. To be fair, the other girl had been so silent, Sombra would have never known she had been there if it weren’t for the drop of her pen. She didn’t look like she cared very much, but her face looked pinched up and annoyed. It was like Sombra had come into the corner just to personally bother her. Her hair was up tight and the books on her table were in an orderly stack. How could someone be reading that much on the second day of school? The more Sombra stared, the more confused the other looked. Smirking, she continued on with the task at hand, pulling out a small device and sticker before screwing the laptop back together. 

“What are you doing?” Came the other’s voice, the Indian lilt apparent behind clear annoyance. 

“What does it look like I’m doing, chica?” The smirk was still apparent in Sombra’s voice as she finished her work up, reaching underneath the table she was at to stick the security sticker to the underside of the wood. 

There was a moment of silence where Sombra thought the other wouldn’t reply, but as she got up, she was proven wrong. “You are stealing it.” 

“It’s not stealing if you’re allowed to do it.” A cocky smirk on her face, Sombra found the other’s eyes again. She wasn’t very worried that the other might report her, but it was amusing to see how much the other cared. 

“You are allowed to steal?” The other asked flatly, cocking an eyebrow. 

“I’m not stealing. I’m borrowing. Isn’t that what you’re supposed to do in libraries?” Sobra shot back playfully, starting to head out. This conversation wasn’t seeming to go anywhere until the other spoke up again. 

“I’ll report you to the front desk.” 

“Oh yeah?” That was surprising. Half of her hadn't expected the other to go there, but then again this was a girl who was reading at a mile a minute when classes had only just started. Boring. Turning back over her shoulder, Sobra flashed a grin and came over to her desk. Who was this girl? Better yet, who did she think she was to be so interested in her business? Sombra had learned from day one that you didn’t stick your nose where it didn’t belong unless you knew you weren’t going to get caught. 

“Tell you what you’re gonna do, niña.” She purred, sitting on the edge of the girl’s desk. Her shock was already obvious, but Sombra wanted to have fun with her. “You’re not gonna say anything, and you just might not be waking up with a malfunctioning arm tomorrow.” To accentuate her words, she ran a finger up the girl’s metal left arm and winked. It looked like a pretty advanced piece of technology, and Sombra would be lying if it didn’t pique her interest. The other was struck silent, eyes wide in defiance, in shock, in confusion, each emotion flickering up in turn. It was more than amusing. Satisfied with the reaction, Sobra hopped up, computer in hand, and waved a goodbye.

“See you around.”

\-----

“So, Sombra. Where are you from?”

Sombra didn't know how she had ended up roped into conversation with the group of girls she sat with, but she found herself not especially minding either. She had just been trying to find a quiet place to work, and the cafeteria was perfect after normal hours, but this group entered and the rest was history. 

“Mexico.” Sombra replied, looking pretty much face to face at the girl that had introduced herself as Lena. “I'm gonna guess you're from the UK?”

The grin on this girl was admittedly contagious with how wide it was, her eyes sparkling with energy. “You got it! The accent gave it away, yeah?”

“Of course it did. Anyone can hear you coming from a mile away.” The French girl Amélie pointed out. Sombra thought she liked her most of all so far with how badass and bitchy she was. If only she could put on the air of not caring like that too. It was so cool. 

At that point, Sombra couldn't even keep up with what Lena was talking about as she bounced from speaking from person to person. It was the girl Fareeha that spoke to her next, calmer than Lena but clearly interested. 

“What are you studying here?” 

“Computer science.” Sombra said before she could think of anything else. She hadn't thought about what the answer to that might be if someone asked. She didn't want any one person to know too much about her, and even if it wasn't the whole truth, it was too close to it. 

“Hey me too!” Hana, the Korean girl who Lena was currently talking the ear off of, piped up. Oh great. “Well that and game design. What are your classes? We might have something that overlaps.”

“Well I’m aiming for comp sci but I'm in all the other bullshit right now.” Sombra lied as some of the other girls nodded. Apparently it was common to take classes that didn't matter for school requirements. 

All of them talked late into the night, and Sombra found herself enjoying learning about each of the girls. They were all different from the people she knew in Castillo, but none of them were uninteresting. Lena was going into aviation with Fareeha, Amélie was studying industrial engineering, and Hana was working with computers even though she didn’t know what she was going to do with it. Her love was with gaming though. They were all so unique but each of them boasted that they wanted to join Overwatch and protect people despite what the group had become (Sombra assumed this was how that had become friends with how different they were). It reminded Sombra of hearing the stories of Overwatch’s valor when she was younger. Of course a little girl like her had believed and hoped they would save her from her life. Fat chance. 

“So what's your story?” Hana asked to bring her out of her thoughts, lying on one of the tables and snacking on some chips produced out of thin air. “I'm curious about the cool tech on your head.” She grinned. 

“Uhh well, it's a computer system, local internet, a little software, all that jazz.” Sombra admitted with a little grin. “It all works really well with my computer back home, but I gotta make some adjustments to make it all more universal.” 

“A computer in your head??” Lena beamed, leaning in to look at the tracks. “Do you just browse the net during class without anybody knowing then?”

Sombra laughed at that. “I can go through the net if I want but it's always easier for me to visualize things. Though this piece only works when I’m wearing the right things.” She explained with a smirk, waving her gloved fingers to pull up a couple of display screens to prove her point. The others were amazed at the projection to say the least, and Sombra swelled with pride. It was her handiwork mixed with the technology of her home. It felt good for people to think it was incredible. 

“So what do you really do with it?” Amélie asked over Lena and Hana’s exclamations, giving Sombra a stare that made her feel see-through. “You didn’t get all of this done for nothing, no?”

As if she was about to tell them all what she did. “I like tinkering, pushing limits.” She shrugged, telling a half truth. Part of her knew the other might not believe her for a minute though. “It’s something everyone around me was doing, so I joined in. It’s part of my heritage, I guess.” 

\-----

Satya felt like her mind had numbed out until she got back to her dorm room that evening. The classes were effortless to get through. All it had been was absorbing information and retaining it. The time in between classes had been more stressful. There were just too many people on the campus, the classrooms for the subjects she was taking were in illogical places (two architecture classes were on opposite sides of the campus when they were only ten minutes apart on the schedule. It was absurd!). She had hardly had time to eat in between, and her body already felt the effects of its normal schedule being disturbed for too many days in a row. 

And not to mention that encounter in the library had taken it out of her. That other girl had been so foreign looking with the glowing lines on her scalp and challenging smirk. And she had been so confident in her act of theft and destruction of property. Why had she even wanted to steal school property? Was she not a student? Why was she tampering with the computer? Why had she threatened her? What would have happened if she _had_ reported her? And why had she actually felt the other’s touch to her arm as if it had been lightning on real skin? None of it made sense to her. Better not to think about it. It wouldn't happen again. 

As she closed the door to her room, Satya was struck by just how tired she was. She didn’t know the last time she had felt this exhausted, but all that was on her mind was how much she wanted to sleep. Luckily in the time that she had to herself, she could keep some kind of routine. Methodically undressing. Brushing her teeth. Washing her face. Letting her hair out of its clip and pulling it into a looser bun. Setting her alarm clock and then finally slipping into bed. 

But sleep didn't come. Not for a while, at least. Her head was spinning, trying to compensate for the chaos that she had experienced. Was she ever going to get used to this new life? Would she ever adjust? Satya hoped she would, and quickly. Her life had been the same for so long, but she never imagined the world outside of what she knew would be quite like this. As she finally drifted off, the only thought left in her head was imagining the girl from the library even attempting to take her arm. She would have a hell of a time if she did.


	4. 4

It took Satya exactly twenty four days to feel adjusted to her surroundings. She wasn’t as overwhelmed with crowds and social interaction anymore, her body had adjusted to the new time zone and food, and she could navigate her new environment much easier. Slowly but surely, she formed a new routine that worked for most days. It consisted of times to eat, times to read, and time for class. 

One thing she found she enjoyed was spending time in the laboratories that the university offered. Students who were above a certain class level were allowed full access to their labs, each tailored for specific needs. The one Satya found worked best for her was the particle physics lab. She could work on the weekends mostly undisturbed working on light problems and even trying to test a few of them out with real beams, seeing how far she could bend the physical. 

And it was working well. Her goal was to bend light into something solid, something that could be molded and formed into structures. The bending was the easier part. Without more advanced technology, it could be done with mirrors and prisms. It was the staying in place that gave her a harder time. Though she couldn’t get that far yet, she was satisfied with the progress. 

She was in the lab on a Saturday, resetting her setup to adjust for another test. There were a few others in the lab all with their own setups, and Satya had never been interested in anyone else’s experiments until one girl shrieked for joy at her work place. Looking over, she saw her hug her partner and huddle back over what looked like a frozen capsule, no bigger than the palm of her hand. A couple of others in the lab went over to congratulate her as she talked excitedly with them, and Satya tried her best to stay concentrated, though her curiosity eventually got the best of her. 

“What have you made there?” She asked as she walked over, addressing the girl who had been working. 

“This?” Beaming, the girl held up the capsule with a gloved hand, more than happy to explain to a complete stranger. “It’s concentrated ice. Its molecular form allows it to stay frozen and transfer a colder temperature onto other objects easily. It’s like dry ice but even stronger. Hopefully it can be used for climate control, but it could have so many applications.”

“Oh.” Satya didn’t know how to reply, didn’t know what she had planned to do with this information. So she decided to keep it short. “Congratulations on your success.” 

“Thank you so much.” The girl grinned, sticking out a gloved hand that didn’t really resemble a hand at all. “My name is Zhou Mei Ling, but just call me Mei.” She waited until Satya took her hand to continue. “And this is Zarya, my girlfriend.” She said, pointing to the larger girl that was adjusting something on the table. “We’ve seen you in here a few times before. Are you making progress with your experiments?”

“I believe so.” Satya nodded, turning her attention back to Mei. “I can’t say how close I am to results, but I am closer than I was before.”

“Progress then! How exciting!” Mei exclaimed, setting her project back down and pulling off the thick glove. Her voice was so genuine that it caught Satya off guard. “What are you working on?”

“I’m trying to turn light into a solid.” Satya said, attracting a curious look from both girls. “It might sound impossible, but I’ve gotten it to work on paper.”

“Well that’s the first step! That’s amazing!” Mei beamed, taking Satya’s hand in both of hers. “You are going to do it, I just know it.” Zarya must have seen how uncomfortable Satya was with the contact and encouragement because she pulled Mei to her side a safer distance from the other.

“What do you plan to do with this solid light?” Zarya asked, her voice thick with a Russian accent.

“I am first and foremost an architect. I just wish to use light as my building resource. It's a free energy, and if everything goes to plan, the technology to turn it into a solid should be inexpensive as well. It can be a sustainable way of growing communities.” Satya explained, giving the other a grateful look for her intervention. She had never had enough experience with people to be comfortable with how close Mei got, even if she could tell she meant well. 

“Well, you'll have to keep us updated with your progress.” Mei said before looking a bit surprised. “I never got your name.”

“Satya Vaswani.” 

“Nice to meet you, Satya.” Mei grinned, remembering to go and take care of her station before her ice could freeze anything else.

“Good luck with your experiments.” Zarya smiled down at her, giving a nod of approval. “I don't understand all of this science, but what you are doing is important.” With that, she left to help Mei with unsticking a few things that had inadvertently froze together. 

Satya went back to her station to continue her work, waving back at the two of them as they left. It stuck her that they were a strange couple, but then again, she had never met many couples. Once again, she was left with more questions than answers. 

\-----

Satya had been confused by a message sent to her a few days later over her email. She had been sitting in class when it popped up on her screen, and it took her a few minutes before she realized it had been Mei from the lab. In the message was an invitation for a movie night with her, Zarya, and a couple of their other friends that Friday. She didn’t know what to do with it. Why would they invite her? They weren’t friends. They were hardly acquaintances. They had only had one conversation. It was illogical. And so she ignored it until she got back to her dorm that night. Lying awake in bed, she stared at the message once more. 

Since coming to this school, her eyes had been opened to just how many ways her education had fallen short. She didn’t know how to deal with people. She didn’t understand how their minds worked and why they talked like they did and why they could talk about nothing. And it struck her that she had never ‘hung out’ with anyone before. Her life only consisted of the need to study and learn, and she had never given time to know others, even the others like her who she had lived with back home. Was she really missing that much? Another half hour of thought and Satya finally replied.

‘I’ll be there.’

\-----

Saying that she was going was one thing, actually building up the courage to go was another. There would be five people there including her, and while she had been in classes much larger over the past month, it was nothing like this. They would try and talk to her like Mei had in the lab, and she didn’t know if she had the energy to do that all night. But a promise was a promise, and Satya found herself at the address Mei had sent her at 8:01pm exactly. Standing nervously, she stared down the numbers painted on the door in front of her before someone opened it up. 

“You came!” Mei grinned up at the other, opening the door wide to let her in. “I’m so glad. Come in and get comfortable. Feel free to look around, ok?” 

Satya nodded and stepped in like she had instructed, looking around at the clean inside. It was a small place, but it seemed very homey. She had never seen a living space like this other than on the tv. In the entrance, there were two flags up in the wall, one Russian and the other Chinese, along with some other trinkets and posters. It made sense. 

“Zarya, Satya is here!” Mei called, running over to the kitchen to grab something out of the oven. It was a couple of moments before the other met them in the room, grinning down at Satya. 

“I thought you would not show up. It’s a good surprise.” She said with a wave, pointing to their living room on the other side of the wall. “We have drinks and food in there as well as two other friends.” 

Nodding once more, Satya looked around a little more before finally making her way into the other room where two other women sat talking. One was older, with graying hair and an eye patch, and the other seemed about the same age as their hosts with blonde hair up in a ponytail. Both of them looked her way and grinned, the blonde one standing to give her a handshake. 

“You are Satya, right? My name is Angela. It is nice to meet you.” She smiled, her accent something European that Satya couldn’t pinpoint. 

“Nice to meet you as well.” She said, returning the sentiment she found to be a customary thing to say. 

The other woman stood as well to greet her, and Satya couldn’t help but notice she had the same eye mark as the girl she had met in the cafeteria the other day.

“And I am Ana.” The woman said, her voice warm as she extended her hand. “I am a professor here at the school. Mei told us they met you in the laboratory.”

Satya shook her hand and nodded, not knowing what else to say to that.

“Well come, sit down and tell us about what you are working on.” She motioned to the couch as she sat again herself. She seemed genuinely interested, and Satya suspected that she might be one of Mei and Zarya’s mentors. 

Doing as she was told, Satya explained her project and goal as the other two came back in with more food. Everything looked delicious. There were sticky buns, different fruits, a noodle dish of some kind, and drinks that seemed like they were a mixture of cultures as well. 

“That is incredible!” Angela grinned as Satya finished her explanation. “It is always great to find someone who is also interested in sustainability. I’m in the medical field, but I hope to find a way to provide healthcare to smaller cities and towns that have been affected by recent events.”

“That is an ambitious goal.” Satya noted, thinking of her own village that seemed so far away. She only had a few memories that she had actually held onto -she had been so young-, and she had been thinking of them more often at this school than she had when she had been at Vishkar. 

“I know. But hopefully it can become a reality soon. There are so many in need.” She replied, reaching for one of the beers on the table as everyone else nodded in agreement.

Satya watched as Mei reached for the plate of buns, offering one to everyone else. “This is my mother’s recipe. They were the best baozi in the northern province.” She beamed. Everyone took one in turn, and Satya inspected hers for a moment. 

“Do they have meat in them?”

Mei perked up a little. “I have a couple of them without.” She pointed to a few on the side of the plate. “Many of my Indian friends are vegetarian. I wasn’t sure what you ate, but I tried to make some things with just noodles and vegetables.”

Satya once again didn’t know what to say to that. How could the other be so thoughtful when she barely knew her? With a small thank you, she took the correct bun from the plate and took a bite, grinning despite herself. They were warm and savory, and she could see why Mei wanted to boast about them even if this wasn’t the original recipe. 

“These are delicious, Mei. Thank you.” Ana said from where she sat, taking another from the table. 

During the night, Satya had gotten to know everyone fairly well. Angela came from Germany, and she was trying to obtain a doctorate for her medical practice. She had come to Oasis University to incorporate newer technology into her practice. Ana had only been a professor in the military program for a few years, but she had been heavily involved in Overwatch’s development, boasting about her sharpshooting skills. “I still never miss a shot.” She said, eye shining. 

Zarya and Mei had both met in a particle physics class, and while one was in environmental studies and the other was interested in weapons engineering, they had obviously found their common ground. Mei lived in between Zarya’s apartment and the dorms because of her scholarship, but it didn’t seem like it got in the way with their relationship. Satya found herself enjoying learning about the others. They weren’t loud and chaotic like that group in the cafeteria had been. They were older and more reserved, and Satya didn’t find herself so overwhelmed. 

“So what about you, Satya? Where have you come from?” Ana asked with a smile, interrupting the other from her sip of a soda Zarya insisted she try. It took her a moment to form her thoughts before she spoke. 

“I was born in a small village in India, and at the age of seven, I was found by the Vishkar Corporation to show potential in their architecture programs. I lived and studied at their facility in Hyderabad.”

“So that’s why you wear their uniforms.” Zarya noted with a little smirk. “I was wondering why you only had the two outfits I’ve seen.”

“I don’t need anything more. These are what I’ve been given.” Satya pointed out before continuing. “I am here to study architecture, infrastructure, and work on my hard light experiments.”

Angela seemed interested in what Satya was saying, but Ana had gone quiet, looking at the table of food like she was thinking. It was a strange reaction, and she wondered what she had said to cause it. The others though, hadn’t seemed to notice. 

“You know,” Zarya pointed at Satya. “You should get some more clothing. The uniforms fit you, but you would look better in another thing.” Mei nodded in agreement. 

Satya knit her brows a little. “I’ve never had another thing. Not since I was a child.”

“Well then, we’ll just have to go shopping!” Mei grinned, clearly excited with the thought. 

The conversation dissolved into different talk about the best places to go to get clothes in the city, with Angela ultimately giving them the best suggestions. Satya had finally agreed to go with Mei and Zarya the weekend after next, figuring that would be plenty of time to recharge herself from the night. While she had enjoyed everyone’s company, she wanted to get home and get back to a routine. The night began closing down as Angela left to sleep before her shift at the clinic early in the morning. 

“I should probably go as well.” Ana sighed, standing up and going over to both Zarya and Mei to kiss both of their cheeks. “I was so nice to talk with everyone, and nice to meet you, Satya.” She said, turning to her as she was standing up as well. “Are you headed towards the dorms?” She asked. 

“Yes I am.”

“Let us walk together then.” Ana said, a small smile on her face. 

They both said their goodbyes to Mei and Zarya as they walked out into the cool evening. Satya didn’t mind this place so much when it was cooler. The evenings were always calmer anyways. The two of them walked together quietly, only Ana’s occasional humming interrupting the silence until they got onto the campus. 

“My dear, what do you know about the Vishkar Corporation?” Ana asked, finally speaking up. 

“What do I know?” It was an odd question for Satya to answer. “They are a technology company committed to improving the infrastructure and sustainability of the future.” 

“Do you know how they go about bringing that mission statement to reality?” 

Satya shook her head a little. “I have never been in the field. Only in their classrooms.”

“Perhaps you might want to look into it.” And that was that. Ana was silent again until they had reached Satya’s dorm. “Have a good evening, darling. It was so nice to have met you.” She said genuinely, smiling at the other before heading off to her residence on the other side of campus. 

Satya had no idea what to think of it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A Satya-centric chaper with lots of world building. I hope you all enjoyed!

**Author's Note:**

> Translation: "No one can make you feel inferior without your permission."


End file.
